Letter to the Editor: Manners in dissent

What happens if our candidate loses the election? Civil, productive ways to handle it do exist.

On election night, around 50 percent of us will begin a time when our preferred candidate will be out of a job.

We have learned when young how we are supposed to be good losers through sportsmanship awards. Showing grace in defeat, we line up and shake hands after a game, ever ready to battle another day.

In recent years, civility has begun to unravel, yet dissent is a defining part of American history. Our founding fathers brought this up in the very first sentence of the Bill of Rights: “Peaceably to assemble” and “petition the Government for redress of Grievances.”

Adlai Stevenson, running and losing against the popular war hero Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, stated, “It is traditionally American to fight hard before an election; it is equally traditional to close ranks as soon as the people have spoken ... "

Another example of civility, a standard for grace in defeat was set by the letter that George

H.W. Bush left in the Oval Office for Bill Clinton: “When I walked into this office just now, I felt the same sense or wonder and respect that I felt four years ago. I know you will feeling that too ... Your success now is our country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.”

Bush and Clinton grew to be friends and confidants.

Another example? Abraham Lincoln brought his political enemies into his administration, illustrated so well by Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Lincoln.”

And another? Jimmy Carter, after losing in 1980, spent the next four decades living his principles. In losing the presidency, he won something larger — a platform on which to do good outside of politics.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Antonin Scalia were ideological opposites on the Supreme Court, neither shrinking from a good argument, yet the two, away from the court, were genuinely close, especially by a shared love of opera.

We have to move on, rather than just stewing about election results, sometimes it may mean accepting that the other side might have a point. We should seek ways to find common ground with the “Loyal Oppisition.” Attacking others is not the answer, but attacking ideas is the better course of action.

Steve Mullan